View full sizeHaiyan Chen, a contract worker at SolarWorld's Hillsboro plant, inspects a solar panel before it's laminated. The company plans to lay off 100 this summer. Motoya Nakamura/The Oregonian

SolarWorld notified state officials Monday that it will lay off 100, or 14 percent of its Hillsboro work force, and suspend silicon crystal and wafer manufacturing at the Washington County plant.

The company blames price
declines caused by Chinese competitors selling solar products in the United
States at below manufacturing costs.

"Prices have
continued to collapse as a result of the Chinese dumping," said Ben
Santarris, a SolarWorld spokesman. "We need to be decisive in navigating
this artificial crisis."

In response, SolarWorld
will stop making crystals and wafers in Hillsboro, instead securing them from
its parent company in Germany or the open market. The company will continue
making cells and panels at the Hillsboro plant.

SolarWorld led a
successful drive for U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar products. But Chinese
government subsidies and dumping continue, Santarris said. Chinese companies
use a loophole to avoid tariffs, he said, manufacturing cells in Taiwan and
elsewhere for assembly in China and export duty-free to the United States.

SolarWorld employs about
700 at the factory, which opened
in 2008 in a converted semiconductor plant. More than 1,000 worked at the plant
-- backed by Oregon tax credits
-- at its peak. The job
cuts affect both regular and temporary workers and will be
completed by the end of August.

In Germany, the parent
company has been struggling to restructure after massive losses. Under a debt
restructuring deal, Qatar Solar would invest 35 million euros in SolarWorld,
becoming a 29 percent shareholder. Frank Asbeck, SolarWorld chief executive,
would invest 10 million euros, securing a 19.5 percent stake, according to
Reuters.

The European Union
commission is phasing in tariffs after finding the same subsidies and dumping
that U.S. officials cited. Those duties will rise to 40 percent on Aug. 6, in
the absence of a settlement.

Oregon taxpayers have a stake in SolarWorld, having invested $41.9
million so far in tax credits and more in local tax abatements. From those
state credits, SolarWorld netted $28.1 million, or less than 5 percent of its
Hillsboro investment of more than $600 million.